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Fairy fort / earthen ringfort in Carrowreagh (upperwoods By.)

Fairy fort / earthen ringfort

What is recorded here

Fairy forts are human ringforts misnamed because people stopped remembering the hands that built them. Carrowreagh keeps that forgotten shape: a circular earthwork on elevated ground, surrounded by marsh at the south, with a causewayed entrance at the north-east. The marsh may have been its moat, the banks its boundary, the interior a place for life rather than display.
On elevated ground surrounded by marsh at S. A circular ringfort (diam. 31m) defined by a low much-denuded bank (Wth 2m; int. H 0.45m), a deep fosse (Wth 1.8m, D 1.05m) and an external bank (Wth 2.2m; int. H 1.5m; ext. H 0.6m). Inner face of inner bank appears to be stone-revetted. Causewayed entrance (Wth 2m) at NNE. Interior very marshy, banks and fosse overgrown with trees and shrubs. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Laois' (Dublin Stationery Office, 1995) compiled by P. David Sweetman, Olive Alcock and Bernie Moran. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 17 December 2007

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What survives
Recorded monument

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